Using a new database of quarterly data for 21 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean for the 1990-2012 period, this document shows that the duration of GDP contractions appears to be a rather robust indicator of real volatility, and is negatively correlated with long run growth in Latin Amer...

World economic growth was somewhat disappointing in 2015 due to a series of negative shockswhich affected the performance of a number of emerging and advanced economies. Among these were the continuing decline in commodity prices, periods of financial market volatility, lower capital flowsand subdu...

Low commodity prices in the Caribbean region have negatively impacted the economic growth of commodity exporting economies. Growth among the service producers averaged 1.6 per cent in 2015 but is projected at 2.5 per cent by year end in 2016. The region also struggles with high unemployment of 15.2...